Powerpuff Girls to the rescue!

First family school project in 2016: Create your own boardgame! Lily is obsessed with the Powerpuff Girls and made the "Powerpuff girls save the day"-game! She loved drawing the characters (she could do that all day long!). We also made our own dice with the Powerpuff stamps she got for Christmas. Writing the rules was a harder task and took up a looooooot of time (and needed lots of encouragement...) But we did it! She already took the game to school and said it was a lot of fun to present it to the classroom and play it with her classmates. Way to go, Lily!

Pershing Square Ice Skating

The ice rink in Downtown Los Angeles opened in November, but we didn't have time to go until today! Granted, there was some pressure because tomorrow (Martin Luther King Holiday) is the last day it is going to be open (and we can't go tomorrow).
Lily skated well - ice skating seems to be a bit easier for her than rollerskating. Ennio kept on falling! Thankfully, he was allowed to have the "polar bear" as a helper!!! (they first said he was too big for it, but after insisting we got one after all!)

10 years of blogging!

Ja, ondertussen is het al 10 jaar geleden dat ik hier mijn eerste blogje publiceerde! Toen was mijn leven nog helemaal anders: ik woonde wel al in L.A. maar was nog niet getrouwd, had geen kinderen,... Ik vond het fijn te schrijven over mijn "avonturen" zo ver van huis en iedereen mocht meelezen! Sinds een jaar of zo staat er een paswoord op de blog. Mijn verhalen zijn toch ietwat geëvolueerd van "kijk-eens-wat-ik-hier-allemaal-meemaak"-vertelsels naar een soort persoonlijk archief van de groei en bloei van Lily en Ennio met af en toe ook een verslag van onze activiteiten en reizen. Ik doe het nu eigenlijk meer voor mezelf (en voor de kinderen later). Van mij mag iedereen die interesse heeft en die ons kent, meelezen, maar liefst geen complete vreemden van het Internet! Ook nu de kinderen ouder worden (7 en 4 jaar) weet ik niet of het een goed idee is om nog zoveel op het net te gooien? Ik sta een beetje in dubio... Ook vraag ik mij soms af... Wie leest hier eigenlijk allemaal mee? En zou jij doen wat ik doe? Groetjes! Ilse

Hello!  I can't believe it's been 10 years since I wrote my first blog post. A lot has changed since then. Now, I am married and have two kids! My blog has evolved in the same way: from stories about my "adventures" in L.A. to a personal archive of Lily and Ennio's growth and development, and a journal of our activities and international travel. I write mainly for myself (and for the kids, if they want to read this later), but I still wonder... who is reading along? And would you do what I am doing? Or is it better to stop publishing our lives on the Internet :-) Let me know what you think!  Ilse

Goodbye Mia and Oma!

What a wonderful time we had together!
Oma Eva and Mia flew back to Germany Wednesday afternoon, January 6.
Two weeks of bonding, especially between the cousins!
Lily had tears in her eyes all afternoon (which she desperately tried to hold back, but couldn't...) and Ennio kept saying: "My cousin Mia is super nice" and "I only want to share with Mia!" (when he has to share with Lily... Hmm, not sure how I should handle that...)

Anyway, we hope the kids will have made memories that will last a lifetime and we hope to see each other again soon (even though we are not sure right now when that will be!)

XOXO!!!

"To be as happy as a kid in the candy store" should be rephrased as "a 7 and a 9 year old in the make-up store". These girls!!!

Braces!

We started the new year with a new mouth for Lily! She finally got her braces today (I say finally because she was so excited about this, she had been counting down the days!). You may remember that we had our first orthodontist visit back in November... Let's hope she stays this motivated for the next ten months!

Afterwards, we "celebrated" at one of Oma's favorite restaurants in Pasadena (Cheesecake Factory, where she always gets the Luau salad). Mmm! Even Lily was able to eat something yummy (soft bowtie pasta with butter and parmesan cheese) because from now on, we'll have to make quite some adjustments to the foods she can eat!!!





Thanks, Oma!!!

First days of 2016...

New Year's Day: We stayed at home and only got out for a short walk to the park. At night, Marcus and I had a long overdue date night! Thank you, Oma :-)

January 2: Dutch School for Lily and Ennio and a trip to Hollywood and Beverly Hills for Mia!

January 3: Venice Beach in the afternoon and the Griffith Observatory at night!

Interesting mural in Venice Beach: The Luminaries of Pantheism

Muscle Beach!

The tattoo shop. The girls declared NEVER to want to have one!

Foucault Pendulum at the Griffith Observatory, the first direct proof that the Earth rotates on its axis.

January 4: Back to work! Marcus visited the Science Center with the kids and Oma (and Lily got our old iPhone (it has no call function, but she can take pictures and play games))

Visiting the Endeavour Space Shuttle Exhibition

 

A great museum to visit, if you haven't already done so!!!